I spent 20+ hours reading about Flow State so you can use it in 15 minutes

A masterclass on Flow state

In this article, you will find out

• How flow can increase your productivity by 300%
• Tools and strategies to access flow state on demand
• How to make work feel as exciting as using social media
• A blueprint to implement everything into your lifestyle
• How to apply flow into an office job

What is flow?

Flow is a state of consciousness that makes effort feel effortless.

It might have happened to you during a physical activity like running, playing a sport, or during a creative endeavor like singing or sewing.

• Your perception of time changes
• You are hyper-focused
• You feel in tune with the task at hand

Flow it’s not just about getting things done; it’s about enjoying the process. In flow, tricky tasks feel like fun challenges. And in a world full of distractions, flow helps you stay laser-focused. If used correctly, it’s the superpower that allows you to increase your productivity by 300%.

Flow isn’t just for experts or artists. It’s for everyone. And with the right tools and mindset, you can experience it on demand.

Flow Cycle

Stephen Kotler found and wrote in the book, the Rise of Superman, that in order to get into flow there are 4 phases that must occur. Struggle, Release, Flow, and Recover.

Struggle

Problems feel impossible to complete, you feel an urgency to get up and do something else. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing the task, it’s because there is a force that is working against us in the pursuit of finding flow.

Stephen Pressfield in “The War of Art” called this force: resistance.

When you seek distractions, procrastinate, self-sabotage, and look for other alternatives that feel better in the short term; that’s resistance playing games with us.

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.“ — Stephen Pressfield

We need to associate the initial struggle with the flow state, there is no shortcut to flow.

Release

You should step back for a moment, and take a break after struggling for some time. This will help to shut down the prefrontal cortex (used for conscious decision-making) so the subconscious mind can take over.

Take a 10-minute break doing something simple and boring.

The break should be less stimulating than the work you are doing so you will be excited to get back. More on this when we talk about dopamine.

This will shift the brain waves from Beta (Alert and active mode) to Alpha (Relaxed and daydreaming mode).

You can choose from options like

• Staring at a wall (Yes, just look at a wall for 10 minutes)
• Meditating
• Stretching
• Doing light exercises
• Foam rolling
• Walking
• Practicing breathwork

Flow

After the subconscious mind takes over. The conscious effort that we were exerting through the struggle phase becomes unconscious, making the effort effortless.

This is when we are fully focused and working at peak mental state.

The work you produce in Flow will become its own reward, making you crave more of this state, reinforcing the habit.

Recover

After working hard, we need to rest to keep our brain sharp and prepare it for future flow cycles. This helps to consolidate all the memories and lessons from the activity we just worked on.

After finishing your session take some active rest. These are some options you can try

• Taking an ice bath
• Using a sauna
• Taking a 20-minute nap
• Meditation
• Stretching
• Exercising
• Eating a nutritious meal

Image by Author

Don’t break the cycle

When you get distracted or switch to other tasks, you start again from 0. If you never push through the struggle phase, you will start making the association between work and struggling.

To reduce the number of restarts, eliminate as many sources of distraction as possible

• Push through the discomfort at all cost
• Communicate which hours you don’t want to be interrupted
• Work in an isolated place
• Block all notifications
• Define the list of things you have to do
• Work exclusively at one task at a time

Start the cycle

In order to get into flow you need to start first. This sounds obvious but the reality is that most of the time, we know what we need to do and we don’t even start. We procrastinate for hours, days, or even years; fearing so much the struggle that we don’t want to face it.

Embrace the struggle and start. You will find that it wasn’t as hard as you imagined.

Flow triggers

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi after researching for many years about this peak mental state that he called “Flow”, found that there are certain triggers to get into this state.

• Clear goals — Define exactly what needs to be accomplished in this session. It can be completing a task, sending a proposal, or writing 1000 words. Anything that you can measure.
• Complete focus — In the task at hand. No distraction, no multitasking, no switching to other tasks
• Balance between Challenge and Skills — If the task it’s too hard you will feel that it’s impossible, if it’s too easy you will feel bored. The goal is that the difficulty will be just above your current skills, so you will keep improving to match the skills needed.
• Get immediate feedback — You must know if the goal was accomplished or not as soon as possible.

Not all the tasks have by default all the triggers but you can adapt the task you have to include as many of them as possible.

Flow blockers

In order to enter flow we need to be at our best, single-focused, and full of energy.

But there are silent killers that stop us and the biggest one might be with you now, your phone.

It was found that 80% of people check the phone within 15 minutes of waking up, which adds distractions and uncertainty, increases the cognitive load of our brains, and gives us cheap dopamine that makes it even harder to concentrate.

How can we enter flow if we spend our whole day constantly bombarded with distractions and information?

Tweet by Dan Go

Use the phone as little as you can. It’s not about self-control. Thousands of people get paid to design the phone and applications to make it addictive and grab your attention.

Morning routine

Some people have long morning routines, while others don’t have at all. The main goal of a morning routine is to be productive. Surprisingly, many successful entrepreneurs people don’t have a morning routine. Instead, they start working right after waking up.

Entrepreneur routine

As soon as they wake up, they are already working. This is a great idea if you want to be in Flow state because the body has naturally the peak of the tendency to get into Flow.

This means that they are able to get tons of productivity before the rest of the world even started. But there is a catch, overtime these people start to burn out and lose their health; becoming unsustainable in the long term.

These entrepreneurs skipped one of the parts of the flow cycle, the recovery.

Biohacker routine

The Biohackers are those who do everything they can to maximize their well-being and their ability to produce after the routine. Walking in the sun, lemon water, green smoothie, meditation, journaling, working out, and so on.

These routines are great for recovery and setup a great day for flow but work usually starts 2 or 3 hours after waking up. They missed an opportunity to work at the best time of the day.

The inverse morning routine

The entrepreneur routine has the upside of using the most productive of the day to work but they don’t recover, while the biohacker routine has the upside of being totally recovered but they miss the best moment for flow in the first waking hours.

To solve this I present you the inverse morning routine.

Flow before phone.

1. The night before define the activity you want to do and the specific measurable goals
2. As soon as you wake up open the computer and work for 1 to 3 hours
3. Don’t use the phone until you finish the session.

After the flow session is finished, do your morning routine, including healthy habits like

1. Walking
2. Exercise
3. Sunlight exposure
4. Lemon water
5. Meditation
6. Healthy breakfast
7. Cold shower
8. Sauna

The inverse morning routine works because our tendency to get into flow is highest in the morning and the distractions and cognitive load are at their lowest.

After that, you can do the usual morning routine to recover from the effort your body went into the work hours.

Understanding dopamine

Dopamine is the so-called “Molecule of more”, it’s a chemical reward our brain gives us for doing things and makes us feel great.

We have a base level of dopamine (called baseline) and every activity that generates dopamine above that baseline, will cause a spike in dopamine followed by a crash that will put it back to baseline.

Image from Gareth Evans

It makes us feel great so our brain “looks” for the activity that generated that spike in dopamine and craves more of it.

There’s a problem when we get too much dopamine. If we engage frequently in activities with big spikes like drugs, video games, social media, and sex; our baseline will increase, so we will need more dopamine to feel the same pleasure we felt in the past.

We need so much dopamine to create a spike that most of the beneficial activities for our well-being don’t give us pleasure anymore. This includes working, eating healthy, or just watching nature.

How to reduce dopamine baseline

Take boring breaks. Instead of using social media or any stimulating activity, your breaks should be less exciting than your work. This will make you crave to get back to finish your task. Some recommendations are

• Staring at a wall (My favorite)
• Meditating
• Stretching
• Doing light exercises
• Foam rolling
• Walking
• Breathwork

Master the in-between. When you have 5 minutes in the shopping line, waiting for a friend in a restaurant, or going on a bus. Instead of reaching for your phone to kill boredom, embrace it. Be present, be intentional, do nothing.

Kill the multitasking. Focus on one thing at a time.

• When eating eat
• When talking talk
• When working work

If you reduce your dopamine baseline, working will feel as rewarding as using social media.

The work environment for flow

At some point, we started to associate work with sitting. The school and workplace are designed to sit. We even have phrases like “Sit down and work”.

Sitting over long periods of time creates a stiff body. A stiff body makes work feel harder, a relaxed body makes work feel easier.

Work doesn’t need to be done while sitting.

You can use a standing desk, even using some books to increase the monitor will work. Ideally, use a balancing board under your feet to make it easier for your muscles.

You can also walk. Take meetings while walking with your colleagues or buy a walking treadmill to put under the desk.

The golden rule is to divide the work time by

• Standing 50%
• Walking 25%
• Sitting 25%

The power of novelty

When we stay in one place for long periods we signal to go into conservation energy mode, making us feel more fatigued.

Being tired makes effort feel effortful, to be in flow we want it to feel effortless.

Did you ever wonder why sometimes going to a coffee shop and cranking some work time excites you? This is because it creates novelty, it signals the brain that there are new resources and gets out of conservation energy mode. Novelty also creates a spike in dopamine, which will help to focus.

If you start feeling fatigued try to:

• Switch positions, between sitting, standing, and walking.
• Setup 2 working environments in your office and move between them
• Go to a new place like a co-work or a coffee shop

Your workplace should ideally have one main setup that can be used to sit, stand and walk and secondary places that you can use when switching positions doesn’t get the job done.

Work Less, Achieve More

The main mistake is thinking we need more time to be productive. In fact, working longer can reduce our performance.

If we measure productivity as the amount of work we can produce per unit of time, working more hours might make us feel that we produce more in the end. But you might already know that each hour you add, the less productive it is.

The first 2–4hs of work produce most of the results of the day Image by Author

Why Shorter Hours Work

1. Better Priorities: With less time, you focus on what’s truly important. Working on high-priority tasks boosts motivation, helps to go into flow and we advance in the tasks that really move the lever in our business.
2. Skill Challenge: Less time means tasks are more challenging. Facing challenges improves the skills needed to finish the task as well as prioritization and effective delegation.
3. Rest and Recover: Working less gives you time to relax and recharge for the next day.

To implement this you should

1. Define the number of hours to work (4 to 6 is recommended)
2. Block these hours on your calendar.
3. Stick to the schedule. Set up an alarm to finish work and stop working when the alarm rings, even if you’re in the middle of something.

You might see a dip in productivity in the short term but the skills you will gain will surely increase your overall productivity.

Extra tools

Alarms

If we want to make sure we go into Flow state as soon as we start we need to make sure that all the preconditions for that are happening. For this, use your phone to help.

Set up alarms for

1. When to wake up
2. When to take a break and do a recovery routine
3. When to stop working
4. When to go to bed

This will help you stick to the “Flow before phone routine” because setting up the alarms for good sleep and recovery will allow you to start the day ready to work as soon as you wake up.

This will put a limit on your workday with the alarm to stop working. As soon as the alarm hits, you know that it’s time to finish the work day.

This makes time management a passive task, instead of going back and forth with the calendar, you know that you need to work until the alarm hits. This will help you to keep working when you don’t feel like it and to stop working even if you have something to do in order to boost long-term productivity.

Even if you fail to comply with one alarm, the next alarms will keep you back on track.

Caffeine

Coffee is one of the wonders of the world but many people don’t use it correctly.

Coffee can help because

• It boosts dopamine and norepinephrine, which help with focus.
• It increases cortisol and epinephrine, making tasks feel easier.
• It reduces the effect of adenosine, helping us focus and enter a state of flow.

Coffee blocks the adenosine receptors, adenosine is the molecule that builds up over time and makes us feel tired and want to sleep.

If we use too much coffee, adenosine will not build up and we won’t feel tired at night.

The caffeine molecules stay in our body for more time than we think (half-life of 6 hours) so stop drinking coffee 10 hours before sleeping.

Most people use coffee when waking up. This is a mistake that usually leads to an afternoon crash, wait 90 minutes until your first cup of coffee. You will notice that you will naturally feel awake without the need for coffee.

Image by Author

Some people are more sensitive to coffee than others so find the dose that works for you and stick to it.

You can also experiment with different sources of caffeine like tea or yerba mate.

Over time you will become less sensitive to caffeine so stay away from coffee once a week and one week every quarter to keep the caffeine benefits at their peak.

Full flow blueprint

I know it’s a lot of information and it might be hard to understand how all this information goes together so I will give you a possible schedule.

You will benefit the most from this if you can control when, where, and how much to work.

It can also serve if you have a 9–5 job but want to work on a personal project.

The goal of this routine is to have all the preconditions to enter into Flow. This means having a good night of sleep, blocking continuous hours of work without distractions, and moving your body.

Schedule

This is just an example, adapt all the recommendations to your own schedule Image by Author

6:00 | Wake Up.

• Wake up before other distractions may arise
• The waking time is optional, between 5:00 to 7:00 is perfect.
• Adapt it to your own life.

6:01 | Open the computer and start working.

• Flow proneness is at its highest.
• Grab some water and do your things, but keep it as low as 5 minutes.
• Don’t consume caffeine

8:00 | Start your recovery routine.

• After a flow session, we need to recover to keep at our peak state.
• Include movement to make sure your body isn’t getting stiff from the work positions. Stretching, walking, or exercising will do the job.

9:00–17:00 | Up to you / Office work.

• If you have the opportunity to choose, make sure to include exercise, healthy food, and time for deep connections and learning.
• If you have to stick to a 9:00 to 17:00 job, this is the time.

17:00 | No more work.

• In order to be highly productive long term you need to limit the amount of working hours.
• This time might vary but make sure that you are working less than 6hs per day if you can choose to.
• 4 to 6 hours is a good start.

18:00 | No more food.

• This will help you to sleep better.
• It’s recommended not to have food at least 3hs before bedtime

19:00 | No more liquids.

• This will help to sleep better
• It’s recommended not to have liquids at least 2hs before bedtime to reduce waking up at night.
• The sooner you stop, the better.

20:00 | No more screens.

• This will help to sleep better
• It’s recommended not to have screens at least 1hs before bedtime
• If you must use screens try to use night mode and/or blue light blocking glasses

20:30 | Night time routine.

• Write the task you want to focus on the next day
• Set up the work environment.
• Do some stretching, reading, or meditation to ease into a good-quality sleep.

21:30 | Sleep.

• This would give you 8:30hs of sleep to be able to perform at your best tomorrow.
• Adjust to your needs but don’t negotiate with this, try to stick to your bedtime as best as you can.
• 7 hours of sleep should be the bare minimum

Other considerations

1. Set up 2 to 3 work chunks as you like throughout the day. The first one ideally as soon as waking up.
2. Work 50% standing, 25% walking, and 25% sitting. Adjust to your needs.
3. If you have breaks, take a boring break. Wall staring, meditation, stretching, walking. No phone allowed
4. Practice one-tasking. When working work, when walking walk, when talking talk.
5. Avoid cheap dopamine. When waiting for 5 minutes, sit silently, and embrace being bored. Reduce social media, video games, and other high dopamine sources that will make your work less rewarding.
6. Use caffeine between 90 minutes of waking up and 10hs before going to sleep. In this schedule, it would mean from 7:30 to 11:30.
7. Reduce as much friction as you can. Have a work environment that it’s always set up for work.
8. Delay the use of smartphones as much as you can.
9. Food timing and choices are up to you. Try to stick to a healthy diet and don’t consume anything before finishing your first flow session and the last 3hs before going to sleep.
10. Set up 4 alarms. 6:00 Wake up. 8:00 Recovery routine. 17:00 Stop working. 20:30 Night-time routine.

How to apply this on an office job

I understand that all this information suits better for people who have full control and autonomy around how they spend their time. Although ideal, this isn’t the current situation for most.

If you want to have a more rewarding and productive experience at work your goal is to have as much time without interruptions as possible.

1. Search for a block of 1–2hs with the lowest amount of interruptions. This might require you to start working earlier or leave later.
2. Pick the task that you will use for that session the day before.
3. Reduce as many distractions as you can. Disconnect from messaging apps like Slack, turn off your phone, put on big headphones, move to a calmer area, and tell your colleagues not to distract you in this block if possible.
4. If possible track how much are you producing and compare it to the non-flow work you do in the rest of the day, this can serve as leverage to negotiate more of these focus blocks with your manager.

Most of the content in this masterclass was taken from Rian Doris Youtube channel. Rian alongside Steven Kotler founded Flow Research Collective in order to help thousands of people access Flow state at will.

Check out their work in order to go deeper into the topic.

Feel free to reach out if you want advice on how to adapt all the tools to your lifestyle.